USC draws first blood, blanks rival Clemson 6-0

Jordan Montgomery dazzles on the mound to lead the Gamecocks to a Game 1 victory over the Tigers on Friday night in Clemson.

By ERIC BOYNTONeric.boynton@shj.com

CLEMSON — What was once by far the most tightly contested sport between the heated rivals and one of the more highly-anticipated matchups in collegiate baseball continued to remain decidedly one-sided Friday evening.By no means does No. 7 South Carolina require any charity from hated Clemson, but the Tigers were plenty generous in once again getting totally outplayed in a 6-0 Gamecocks victory that opened a three-game series.USC, which mustered only five hits, has now won six of the last seven against Clemson, 9 of 11 and 20 of the last 30 in the series.Being treated to five unearned runs is an embarrassment of riches when you've got sophomore Jordan Montgomery dealing at the top of his game as the 6-foot-4 lefty, whose father is a Clemson grad, was a towering presence in expanding his team's dominance over the Tigers.“We played a clean game and Jordan Montgomery was the story with an incredible performance,” USC coach Chad Holbrook said. “Jordan's got a great changeup and he was able to pitch inside and the velocity on his fastball was very good. He had better command than he'd had his previous two starts and when he's ahead in the count he's awfully tough.”Montgomery allowed three hits in eight innings while striking out a career-high nine and walking only two. Tyler Webb set down Clemson in order in the ninth. The Tigers failed to have a runner reach third base.“I threw a lot of first-pitch strikes and got my cutter over and I was spotting my fastball pretty good in and out and mixing a changeup in there every now and then. I was just throwing my game,” Montgomery said. “It's always good to get a series off on a start like this.”The big lefty was not only nearly unhittable, but resilient as well as he picked up a second wind after Clemson put the opening two batters on base in the seventh trailing 4-0. Holbrook decided to stick with Montgomery who responded by inducing six consecutive routine pop-outs to end his evening in style.“When a guy is throwing a good, hard fastball with a high plane you've got to get on top of the baseball because you may think you're swinging level, but you're getting the bottom half of it,” Clemson coach Jack Leggett said. “Montgomery pitched exceptionally well and didn't give us much. We didn't hit enough ground balls and struck out too much.”Holbrook called Montgomery's ability to remain unscathed in the seventh the biggest inning of the game.“He's an unflappable kid and doesn't mind the tight moments and pitching with runners in scoring position. He's a heck of a competitor and the bigger the situation Jordan tends to pitch better. He got us out of that jam there and I think we all took a deep breath after that inning and felt we were in control of the game.”Sophomore Daniel Gossett (Byrnes) did his best to match Montgomery's brilliance and until losing some accuracy late was pretty darn good. He went 6 1/3 innings and allowed three hits and four runs (one earned) with four walks and four strikeouts.“I felt good with my fastball location and changeup location,” Gossett said. “It's a huge rivalry game and everybody tries to be on point. I just felt I had to come out and pitch the same type of game that I always do.”USC broke a scoreless game by scratching one home in the fifth when Brison Celek and Grayson Greiner opened with singles before being bunted over by T.J. Costen. Tanner English then hit a cue-shot to third and pinch-runner Shon Carson narrowly beat the throw home after Tanner was thrown out at first base.“That was total instinct on his part and it wasn't anything we did as coaches,” Holbrook said. “He read the ball, took off and he's a fast kid.”The play of the game followed in the bottom of the fifth when Clemson catcher Garrett Boulware missed a two-out, solo homer to left by inches as the ball ricocheted partially off Graham Saiko's glove and the top railing of the wall. Saiko recovered and threw Boulware out at third after he slid past the bag.Clemson's Shane Kennedy dropped a routine one-out fly in the seventh before Gossett walked the bases loaded and departed in favor of Joseph Moorefield, who walked in a run, allowed a sacrifice fly and then a RBI single by LB Dantzler and that was more than Montgomery required.“We beat a really, really good team and pitcher and I was proud to see our guys react the way they did,” Holbrook said.